Scouting Trip

This year's section of the Idaho Centennial Trail covers a lot of actually driveable roads. So the other weekend, my husband and I actually drove those roads that we could to check out how it was going to be. Of course, the part that I'm most concerned about is the part that we can't drive, because that's the part that has the highest elevation and follows a creek closely enough to require multiple crossings of potentially high water.

But the parts we could drive were in great shape. There was a bit of snow on Bennett Mountain Road, but only at the side of the road, not really on it. We did miss the turn off for Cat Creek Road, but only because I wasn't reading the map correctly. I didn't think we needed to turn on Cat Creek at the time, but it turns out that ICT does turn on Cat Creek Road instead of staying on Bennett Mountain. The upside is now I know for sure where to turn.

Castle Rock Road crossed water, but we got our Ford Focus through it without a problem. We didn't go all the way to the Hunter Creek Transfer Camp because we got spooked by someone's private property sign. Though I'm suspicious about their ability to call a forest service road in the national forest private property. I'm not going to worry about that when hiking anyway.

We did try to go around and make it to Hunter Creek by another route. At first, it wasn't so bad, but after we rounded a lake, the road got less and less driveable. We made it past a muddy section, but after that, the road deteriorated to something we weren't comfortable driving a sedan on. We turned back and went to lunch in Fairfield.

After eating, we drove on the Pine/Featherville Highway. There was a detour because of a bridge being out at Pine with a one lane road controlled by a traffic light. It felt really weird waiting for the light to change, especially once a truck pulled up behind us, but it did change after about five minutes. Driving around past Featherville, the ridges and mountains definitely had snow, but I wouldn't be going to the top of any mountain. Just high up a ridge to come down Virginia Gulch. The trail tops out around 7400 feet. this early in the season, snow is pretty likely. The question is will it be so much snow that I can't continue? Or will the creek crossings have too much water to safely cross?

In either of those events, if the answer is yes, then I will turn back. I'm not going to take unnecessary risks just to get the hike done. If I need to turn back, then I'll finish the hike later in the summer. I've already got to do another segment later in the summer or even in September so I'll be ready for next year. I really hope I don't have to turn back, but I'm prepared to do so if circumstances warrant.

And I just won't know for sure until I get there.

Call of the Spring

Yesterday I went to the library. I rode my bike after work, and when I rode home I took the path along the river.

It was pretty nice outside, around 70 degrees. The clouds were threatening rain, but not following through. The trees were starting to bud and blossom, filling the air with scents green and sweet. The Boise River was flowing high, rushing past over sections of bed long dry from the winter.

This was the kind of day that is both soothing and a tease. The spring air was calming, the water sounds a delight. I finished that ride in a happy mood, but at the same time, I wanted to be out on the trail. I wanted to surround myself with dirt and grass and blooming trees and spend the night under the stars, no matter how cold it would inevitably get overnight at this time of year.

And it won't be too long before I start getting out there.

I just need to hope that the snow starts melting fast along the Lime Creek trail system or I'm going to have to split my solo trip up in a lot of pieces this season.

I have been considering what to do if the Lime Creek area isn't going to be ready for hiking by my last set of dates in mid-May. One option is to do the desert part from Hammett as far north as possible to a point that meets the road. Maybe the intersection of Featherville/Pine Forest Highway and High Prairie Road or all the way to the Hunter Creek Trailhead if the roads are in shape for it. Then take a weekend sometime later in the summer, late June or late July maybe and finish up the remainder. And if I do that, I might as well do another little segment, from Stanley Lake to the edge of the Frank Church Wilderness.

Actually, I think that's the only option if Lime Creek is still snowed in. I can handle hiking through some snow, but I'm not going to risk my life if the trail is so covered as to be completely invisible. I don't want to try that on an unfamiliar trail. I know how easy it is to get lost when snow covers the trail even when I know the area well. I take risks when I hike, but I calculate them.

Even if the lure of the spring air is tempting me to go forward no matter what...

Almost Go Time

I'm vacillating between being nervous, excited and scared about my upcoming trip. My back is feeling pretty good, but my legs are absurdly sore this week. I've got most everything that I want to pack out and weighed and ready to go, if not packed. Fresh batteries in the headlamp, charging batteries for the camera - I even contacted the Idaho BLM to see if they had anything to tell me about current trail conditions.

I checked out the Idaho Centennial Trail guidebook from the library, but it was a bit disappointing. For one thing, it was published in 1998. I know the guidebook my husband and I used for the Chamberlain Basin hike last year was out of date and it was only 10 years old. So I didn't hold out high hopes for accurate information, but the format of the book itself was also disappointing. I didn't find the descriptions of the trail sections to be clear and the author keeps inserting side trips, saying that hikers and horseback riders should take this shortcut to cut off miles and the trail goes this way, unless you want to take that way. So I'm glad I checked it out rather than buying it.

There's one last food item that should be reaching my doorstep some time tomorrow - coffee. My initial plan was to go without coffee, but then I'd have to wean myself off of it before I headed out and I'm just not ready to do that right now. I'm one of those people who get awful caffeine withdrawal headaches, so I can't just quit cold turkey. And even though the powerbar chews that I'll be bringing have "1xcaffeine" that is just not enough to make up for a cup a day habit. So I'm going to try Stok Cold Brew Coffee Shots. I was going to buy some at a local grocery store that the Stok website insisted they were stocked at, but that was a no go. I scoured the coffee aisle and finally went to customer service, where they proceeded to tell me to go back to the coffee aisle and wait for someone to come and "help" me look for it. I waited more than 6 minutes before giving up on this mythical help person and giving my business to Amazon instead. I was actually kind of shocked that a large chain grocery store couldn't even look up an inventory on a computer to determine whether they carried an item - I can understand not being able to say for sure that the item was in stock on the shelf based on a computer, but surely they could tell me whether it was carried.

Ahem.

So, I hope that coffee works as a backpacking coffee. There are cold brew coffees that you can buy in large bottles and I found those in a (different) grocery store, but they are supposed to be refrigerated after opening, so they aren't ideal for backpacking where the temperature is variable. For this trip, maybe the temp will stay cold enough for such an endeavor, but I can't guarantee that. So single shots I want and single shots I shall try.

I also need to print off my topo maps. I'm going to take the ICT maps, which are a little less detailed, and pair them with printable quad corners from National Geographic's website. I'll also have a GPS, though I won't be able to keep it on all the time. I'm overall feeling confident that I'll be able to navigate the trail. My main worry is whether my legs will be able to take doing 20 miles a day for 5 days. With the back issue, I did not get as much of a chance to practice long haul days as I planned.

So I'm going out with a goal and determination and no guarantee of success. I'm going to take it one day at a time and do my best. I'll make it as far as I make it. Anything I don't complete this year can be attempted at a later date. Hiking the whole of the ICT in segments will take time.

But I hope I make it 100.7 miles this year.

Running Is Hard Work

Last week I managed to meet my mileage goal of 10 miles with 12 miles. This week so far, I'm up to 5.8 miles of a 12 mile goal. I'll be running 3 miles tonight and half a mile Thursday, leaving a mere 2.7 miles to get to this week's goal of 12. Which I'll probably exceed, depending on what I do on Saturday and when.

My body is feeling the exhaustion of adding all of this physical activity into my routine. My mind is tired and fuzzy by the end of the work day. I really want to institute nap time.

But I know that this will pass. My body will adjust. I just need to get through these first few weeks of change.

I had been hoping to take the Lucky Peak trail for training starting in April. It's a nice 11 mile round trip with nearly 3000 feet of gain. Perfect for spring training, except for the fact that the Boise River Wildlife Management Area remains closed to protect the deer and elk still wintering in the foothills.

Okay, okay, I support keeping the deer and elk safe and unstressed by the presence of humans. But it does mean that I'll have to figure out a different training route. I'll probably head over to 8th street and make a route out of the foothills trails up there. I've hiked there before, and as long as the trails aren't too muddy, they'll do. They just lack the simplicity and challenge of the Lucky Peak trail.

Worst case scenario I'll be at the gym wearing a full pack and walking on the incline treadmill. Possibly alternating with the stair climber - not the step machine, but the one that's like an escalator. Heck, I might even try the Jacob's Ladder with a pack, just to see how it feels. That's not actually a bad worst case scenario.

This is going to be the first time that I'm starting out my hiking season with a solo hike, and a long challenging one to boot. Sure, the elevation profile isn't too bad; I'll start around 6000 feet and descend for most of the journey. But I'm going to be pushing my pace each day and the water situation is not guaranteed to be reliable. I'll have about 14 hours of daylight each day, so a pace of 2 miles per hour should be fine, even with breaks and time to break and make camp.

I'm working on researching the route and Ambrose is preparing the gps with the route (fingers crossed that works). I haven't started on food prep yet, though I'll be going no-cook again. I can handle not having hot food. Though now that I write that, I'm reconsidering because instead of traveling in late summer I'll be traveling in early May when the temperatures will tend towards the chilly side. Maybe I will want to have a stove and some drink mix for warmth and comfort.

There's still a lot of work to do, preparation physical, mental and logistical. I'm excited.